Boyda goes, "Lalalalalalalalalalalalalaalala.."

From LJWorld, Rep Boyda steps out on Gen.'s testimony:

Boyda, a freshman Democrat from Topeka, said she left the House Armed Services Committee hearing on Friday for about 10 minutes during the testimony of retired Gen. Jack Keane. . . .

Keane had testified that since the troop surge began, U.S. forces "are on the offensive and we have the momentum." He also said that security has improved in every neighborhood and district in and around Baghdad, and that "cafés, pool halls, coffee houses that I visited are full of people."

When Boyda returned to the hearing, she ridiculed Keane's description of Iraq "as in some way or another that it's a place that I might take the family for a vacation--things are going so well--those kinds of comments will in fact show up in the media and further divide this country instead of saying, 'Here's the reality of the problem.' "

Boyda, it seems, wants to suppress information about success in Iraq, because such information would "divide the country." Better that the country be united in defeatism.

You have to wonder, did arguments in favor of civil rights "divide the country"? But it's not about unity, according to a spokesman, it's about conversation:

Boyda’s chief of staff, Shanan Guinn, said Monday that Boyda left the hearing “to kind of compose herself because she’s understandably frustrated with the way the war’s going.”

“She was frustrated with how the administration is handling the war, that no one wants to have a real conversation about ways to move forward and our brave men and women oversees are being played like a political ping pong ball,” Guinn said.

She wants a conversation but not the kind where her side listens to the other side.

h/t: the amazing James Taranto